


Overflow

by FireEye



Category: Final Fantasy XII
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-10-27 22:32:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17775440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireEye/pseuds/FireEye
Summary: Where Fran and Balthier disappeared to after theBahamut.





	Overflow

**Author's Note:**

  * For [loveandthetruth](https://archiveofourown.org/users/loveandthetruth/gifts).



Fran shivers in his arms.  Balthier grits his teeth, cradling her to him tighter.

The niche in the rock won’t protect them forever, but it’s doing a good enough job of it for now.  He can sense the fiends lumbering in the depths of the cavern ahead of them, and little does he wish to drawn their ire.  However, their greatest enemy is _time_.

When they crawled from the wreckage of the _Bahamut_ , the sickness didn’t pass.  When they holed up, and Fran’s delirium only grew, Balthier’s concern grew along with it each passing day.

So he did what he knew: he found a legend, and traced it to its source.  Of all the treasure hunts they’ve been on, and of all the maps he’s bought of questionably legitimate origin, this one alone mustn’t be chasing phantoms.  There’s simply no room for doubt.

“I can hear them.”  Fran’s parched whisper brushes his ear, and Balthier lifts his head.  For a brief moment, he thinks maybe she sees him.  “The spirits of this place... they’re calling me...  they bid me follow...”

He cups his palm to her cheek, forcing the most confident of smiles.

“Listen to me,” he tells her.  “We’re almost there; I need you to stay with me.”

Her eyes flutter shut.

Balthier presses a soft kiss to her forehead.

Gently, he reminds her, “This isn’t one of those stories where the hero loses everything he loves.”

He’s carried her this far.  He’ll carry her the rest of the way as he must.

***

At first, he thinks its water.  Cool blue and rippling on the shores of the underground lake.  The legend spoke of a healing spring, deep beneath the earth.

It’s only when he steps one foot down into it from solid shore that he realizes it’s Mist.  So thick it’s practically liquid, and apart from stone, it’s a purer concentration than he’s ever seen.

Indecision grips his heart as Balthier stares down into the pool.  This is the end, where the map has led them.  But he fails to see how this couldn’t make it worse.

Fran is cold in his arms.

Closing his eyes, Balthier takes the first step.  And then another.  Wading out into the pool, he holds Fran as high above it as he can, while it grows deeper around him.

In the center of it all, with Mist rolling around them, he looks down at Fran.

“I never deserved you.”  Balthier says it, because he has to say something.  “But I do the best that I can.  I... hope you know that.”

His heart aches at the silence.

Gently, he lowers his arms, immersing her.  Red oozes from her still form, turning the blue a deep purple.  It rolls off them, to the edges of the distant shore, before disappearing deep beneath the surface.

Several long moments, and Balthier thinks it must have been the wrong choice.  Then she stirs in his arms, eyes cracking open, ears straining to hear.  Her hand finds his face, and her fingernails scrape his cheek.

Fran looks first to the Mist, and then to him.  Her eyes are bewildered, but clear.

Before long, she struggles.  Balthier only hesitates a fraction before moving to set her down gently.  Unsteadily, she holds him for her balance.  Balance he’s more than grateful to provide.

Her eyebrows raise as she studies his face.

“No wit?”

Shaking his head, Balthier only holds her tighter, burying his face in her shoulder.

**Author's Note:**

> This... may have come together a touch heavier on the 'maybe romance' side of things than I'd initially intended. Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy this thing. :)


End file.
